(January 24, 2011 – Al-Salmiyah, Kuwait…) The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA®) is participating at the First Gulf Conference on Halal Industry and its Services in Kuwait. The conference will take place from January 24, to January 26, 2011, and is dubbed as the first event for halal industry discussions on the Arabian Gulf.

The conference is organized by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of Kuwait (MAIASK), the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), and GCC Standardization Organization. This conference enjoys the cooperation with international specialized organizations in the halal standards industry, such as the Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation, the Public Authority for Industry in Kuwait, Halal Industry Development Foundation for the Awqaf Ministry of Malaysia, International Halal Integrity Alliance of Malaysia (IHIA), the Association of Awareness and Information to the Defense of Muslim Consumers in France (ASIDCOM), and the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA).

The conference has also lined up a diverse group of speakers from all over the world, including Malaysia, South Africa, USA and UK. The conference is designed to cover a wide array of topics ranging such as global halal standards, status of ingredients, and animal welfare standards.

Dr. Muhammad Munir Chaudry, President of IFANCA, is also a featured speaker in the program. He will be speaking on the second day of the conference, January 25, 2011, under the segment of Chemical Status of Ingredients and Halal Production Requirements. Dr. Muhammad Munir Chaudry will share his thirty years of experience in ingredient technology in his presentation entitled Chemical Feed: Food and Feed Ingredients. His talk will also cover biotechnology and genetically modified (GM) food issues and the halal status of these processes.

Dr. Chaudry said that IFANCA was proud to be part of the historic conference, and wishes the conference goals’ to receive an astounding success. “The First Gulf Conference on Halal Industry and its Services will raise the global food and beverage industry’s awareness of halal to a higher level,” says Dr. Chaudry. He added that such conferences would enable Middle Eastern countries to join the same level of success that is currently enjoyed by Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in the realm of food, beverage and pharmaceutical trade.

Today, these nations enjoy a high standard of halal certification for meat, packaged foods, cosmetics, medical, and lifestyle products. By investing in developing high quality halal standards, these countries have enabled global companies to streamline business practices and enjoy fruitful, long-term relationships with their economies.